Matt Rodbard

Valentine’s Day cooking is about showing your partner in crime how much you care about them—and so is taking them to see Hamilton on Broadway. So why not combine the two? This year, I'll be making my wife Tamar a multi-course feast inspired by HAM-ilton.

This recipe comes from New York chef Deuki Hong's father and has origins in North Korea, the ancestral home of mandu. (Sharing a border with China, it is no coincidence that mandu sounds a lot like the Chinese word for steamed bread, mantou.) Unlike versions stuffed with finely chopped kimchi, Deuki grew up eating mandu with kimchi on the side. The star in this recipe is the very generous quantity of butter, which is mixed in with the pork, garlic and ginger and adds a real-deal richness to each bite. Not typically used in East Asian cooking, butter is a fully Americanized, fully awesome way to rethink the mandu.